


Gynoid

by DoeEyedButterFly



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Multi, Other, not a feelgood story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:02:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27445333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoeEyedButterFly/pseuds/DoeEyedButterFly
Summary: In the beginning it was all about somehow staying alive.If only she could see Rachel one more time, just once... and then Chloe found a way and soon it became her life's work - something she had to keep quiet about...
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	1. SE.CR.ET

**Back In Time**

  
"Maybe we'll try this one", said Chloe, holding up the black T and helping Rachel put it over her head.

She watched Rachel look at herself in the full length mirror and slowly turn around.

"It's too big for my build, it's slipping off."  
"Yeah, I ... know," Chloe smiled.  
"Did this garment belong to you?" Rachel asked.  
Chloe nodded. "But I've really rarely worn it."

Rachel continued to turn on her own axis and examined herself very closely.  
Chloe meanwhile, rummaged in the closet, she had sealed it in order to preserve the smell.  
She stepped behind Rachel and tied the flannel shirt around her waist.  
"Perfect."

"I recognize this. I've seen a lot of pictures where this exact piece of cloth was worn exactly this way or in a similar style."  
"Do you like it?"  
"Do I ' _like_ it' ? I'm not sure I understand your question, Chloe."  
"I'm sorry, Rachel. I .. forgot that you couldn't even know-"

At that moment the doorbell rang and Chloe winced.  
"Quick, go into mannequin mode," she whispered, glancing nervously back over her shoulder before opening the door. Rachel had become completely stiff, standing there and not moving, her skin glistening strangely.  
Chloe opened the apartment door just a crack.  
"Sign this," grunted a bad-tempered delivery man.  
Chloe grabbed the pen, careful not to see into the apartment, signed it and carried in the heavy package.  
She closed the door and at the same moment she could see out of the corner of her eye how Rachel's skin went back to normal and her breathing started again, causing her chest to rise and fall slightly.  
"Everything's good" Chloe informed, beaming with joy. "Your new improved feet are here." From the corner of her eyes she saw how Rachel checked herself out in the mirror again, her lips forming the words 'Do I _like_ it?'.  
  
  
  
  
 **Now**

  
"Have a seat."

"WHERE IS SHE???", yelled Chloe. Her scream got lost in the huge office room with the grey carpet somehow.  
  
Chloe didn't move. "Give her back to me you bastard! Give her back right now!"  
  
She stared again into those gray-blue eyes, the eyes they had eyed so fascinated, the first time she had sat here.  
The first time, four months ago.  
  
...  
  
"My name is Cormack McArons. I started this company."  
"What do you want from me?"  
"You get to the point, I like that. Well, I'd like to offer you a position here.

"You were watching me. I saw you."  
He just smiled at that.

"That's correct. I had to convince myself that you really are who I think you are."

Chloe had snorted disdainfully.  
"I don't give a shit what you think of me."  
  
He narrowed his eyes and pulled out a portfolio.  
"Your name is Chloe Elizabeth Price. You grew up in Arcadia Bay as an only child, school dropout, you graduated online ... interested in science and technology, precision engineering, aren't you?"  
  
Chloe didn't say a word.  
She stared at a baby pink carpet that didn't seem to fit this office at all.

"You never went to university, Chloe, yet you managed to create things that some of my employed researchers would envy you.  
How come? "

"To create things?" Chloe tried to sound scornful and dumbfounded at the same time, but couldn't really, she had always been a bad liar.

"We know _what_ you did, Chloe Price, I know exactly what you are trying to hide.  
Tell me about her. "

Chloe went into defensive stance, she wouldn't just give up.  
"I haven't done anything illegal, absolutely nothing! It's not against the law to build a robot in your home."

He grinned. Apparently she had said exactly the wrong thing.  
"A robot? Miss Price, we are building robots with different functions and different provisions that are individually adapted to their owners. You have not built a robot.  
The team that I hired to shadow you has found out a lot, you like to order online, especially theater accessories, adaptions to build masks and prostetics, but also playback devices and cameras, a lot of tools, you go to the library as well, borrow books about robots and AI..."

"That's disgusting! Since when have I been spied on?

"Since you have been ordering very special parts from our production here as well. Since you showed up in our database, as a prospect and as a competitor. You haven't built a little robot, Chloe Price, you created artificial intelligence."

Chloe swallowed.  
"W-what do you want?"  
"I want you here in my team under my direction. I will give you completely free hand, set up a laboratory and an office for you."

"No thanks."

"Come on Miss Price, how much do you get paid as a DJ at weddings?  
"Uh-I"  
"Whatever it is, I'll tripple it. Fixed salary every month. And it would be safe here, it can't be stolen from your home. Come on, Chloe. Work for me."

Chloe closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, it didn't help.  
"You build robots yourself here, man, I don't have to explain anything to you!"

He grinned smugly again.  
"All right, choose one, it doesn't matter which one, just take any android you want, it'll be given to you as you leave. We'll trade. Give me the one you're working on in exchange.  
The gynoid. "

"The what?"  
"Gynoid. An android but you built a woman, a female android. According to our research, you built this female android to look exactly like- "  
"I'm not working for you!" Chloe yelled, droplets of spit showering him.  
"Rachel is exactly where she belongs and before I step foot over that threshold again, hell will freeze over."  
She got up and headed for the door.

"Build me ... a 'Rachel' too, I'm ready to pay whatever you ask.", McArons called after her.

Chloe looked suspiciously over her shoulder.  
"Do it yourself asshole!" and with that she was out of the building, past the security guard, and taking the fastest route home.


	2. DE.FEN.SE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the beginning it was all about somehow staying alive.  
> If only she could see Rachel one more time, just once... and then Chloe found a way and soon it became her life's work - something she had to keep quiet about...

**Back In Time**

"Rachel liked this place," said Rachel, studying the floor plan of the Amber Residence.  
"What?" Chloe raised her eyebrows in surprise.  
"Here." Rachel pointed to the rose garden behind the house.  
Chloe remembered tall hedges, she had never looked in, had never really been there, but then a conversation with Rachel came to mind, less a conversation, more a remark, back when they were both in bed together, her hands clasped, just before Rachel had put her lips on Chloes and Chloe was just about to push her tongue into Rachel's mouth but then accidentally farted on her instead.  
They had laughed so loudly and for so long that they hadn't turned the subject back to architecture.

"I have some pictures of Rachel on a porch swing in my memory. They were taken this exact location," robot Rachel brought Chloe back to her small apartment.  
"Yes," Chloe whispered. "I think you're right. One more thing I didn't know because I wasn't paying more attention."  
Rachel eyed Chloe closely. "That makes you sad."  
Chloe turned away teary eyes, she didn't want to look Rachel in the face. "I'm okay. You should probably charge yourself now."  
Rachel watched Chloe, noticed that her battery was still at 67 percent, but since it seemed to be Chloe's wish, she slowly unpacked her cable and went into the kitchen, where she positioned herself and quietly and stiffly charged in standby mode.  
  
  
  
  
 **Now**  
  


"Tell me where she is!"  
"Calm down Chloe, have a seat, would you like coffee, tea? Soda?"

Chloe narrowed her eyes and refused to sit down.  
Someone had rummaged through her trash. Empty soda bottles found.  
Someone had been following her for months. Had discovered that she lived alone, locked herself up for years, hidden from the people outside, the many people you couldn't trust.  
But they found out that Chloe hadn't really lived alone.  
She had made the mistake of ordering parts from McAron's company that she needed for her project, for Rachel.  
  
She had made up things when neighbors had looked at them strangely, once she had taken Rachel through the stairwell up to the roof at night to look at the stars and Rachel had not made any noise, a door had surprisingly opened and a guy had first seen Chloe, then Rachel, and then made a dirty joke, checking Rachel out.  
Chloe had then grabbed Rachel and immediately pushed her towards the front door, while Rachel watched this person, this new human she had never interacted with, carefully and then said hello.  
  
Chloe would never take Rachel outside again, she was built to interact with people, but Chloe was the only person she actually spoke to, whose reactions she recorded, whose life she studied and Chloe made sure that her robot knew Rachel's life, she fed the android with pictures, videos and stories, made her wear Rachel's clothes, rebuilt Rachel's bedroom at her house as well as her dorm room in boarding school.  
It had taken Chloe years for this electronic replica of her great childhood sweetheart to look and sound exactly like Rachel did.  
Only sometimes, when Chloe held her hand at nights when it rained or she just couldn't sleep, when she thought about kissing her, she would turn her face away and get sad because the scent of Rachel's skin wasn't there, because her body temperature was different, because there was a movement of breath, yes, but when Chloe put her hand on Rachel's chest, the robot didn't blush and she didn't feel a heartbeat either and when she put her hand on Rachel's thigh, there were no shaky knees.

...

"You think I am your enemy Chloe, I am not. I understand why you did what you did."  
  
"You have no idea what I did and I will never tell you."  
“I understand it's a big secret. I wanted you to work for me, Chloe, because I wanted to keep your secret.  
I wanted you to be able to continue researching and trying in a safe environment. I warned you that your robot could be stolen, and that is exactly what happened, didn't it? "  
  
"YOU STOLE RACHEL FROM ME!" Chloe yelled and it echoed off the walls.  
  
He didn't twist a muscle. He just looked at her. Then he rose from his chair and propped himself up on the table.  
  
"You love her. You actually love this robot. You don't see this robot as a thing you built. You love this thing as you loved the late Rachel Dawn Amber, don't you?"  
"Don't put her name in your mouth, you disgusting bastard."

He fell silent, just looked at Chloe, then raised his voice again.  
  
"How did you do that?"  
Chloe didn't want to answer, but something in his eyes looked desperate, desperate and something else.  
"What?" She growled reluctantly.

He hesitated, but then decided to play with his cards open.  
"We are very interested in your gynoid Chloe Price, I told you. You have to know by now that we are interested in creating human androids. It is what we do, but it seems like your gynoid is something else. I talked to her, tested her, she... didn't comply all the times.  
I gave her orders and sometimes she refused to work for me, at first I just wanted to know how advanced she is but I had whole conversations with her, so did my employees and other androids, she connected with them but she kept very private as well, as if you taught her to shield herself. And yet she seemed real.  
But this Rachel... she shut us out completely whenever I wanted to know something about you, how you built her, who you are, what you feel for her, I even asked her, if she thinks you are attractive... and guess what... whenever I showed her videos and pictures of you... she reacted with - yes, with ... longing.  
She seemed to miss you. Not like she was depending on you, because she clearly was given everything here a machine could need, but because she... wanted you.

That gynoid, Chloe Price, ... that robot that built with parts _we_ fabricate in this lab... it can... _love_.  
It _loves_ you.   
And I want to know how you managed to do that."


	3. FU.TURE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the beginning it was all about somehow staying alive.  
> If only she could see Rachel one more time, just once... and then Chloe found a way and soon it became her life's work - something she had to keep quiet about...

**Now**

"Addison," said Cormack, swallowing hard, draining his glass in one gulp and looking through Chloe. It had gotten late, the bar had almost emptied, and the first rays of morning sun were already shining through the window. "She was afraid of me. I built seven different Addisons, the last one fled." Cormack's voice cracked, Chloe was sure he had drunk too much, probably he just wasn't used to it but there was more behind it.

Chloe got up from her bar stool and very slowly stood behind the engineer. She put her hand carefully on his shoulder.

"Cormack, ... I'm so sorry you lost your daughter. Really. I wish I could help, but there is something you need to understand.  
I didn't build Rachel to love me. I never tried to build a slave for myself.  
I tried ... I ... I wanted her back. She was murdered, she was just eighteen, not quite nineteen years old.  
I wanted to give this wonderful, talented and incredible person that I loved more than anything or anyone one more chance, just one more chance ... one more chance to ... _live_."

Cormack looked up at Chloe.  
"I know what I did caused you pain Chloe. I'm sorry. I was desperate to get you to work in my lab. I wanted you to build my daughter the way you built your Rachel. Another chance, like you said. I should have never tried to steal her. I'm sorry. I would have never..."  
"It's okay," Chloe interrupted. "You didn't steal Rachel because you are a pervert or a lunatic, I thought whoever may get their hands on my Rachel, would try to destroy her, try to hurt her, rape her, or just get her to fetch beer or clean, but that is not what I had in mind for her when I created her, I understand now why you thought you need my android, my- my gynoid.  
Let's make a deal man. I have to get out of the house more. I've been hiding. That's true.  
I wanted to give Rachel the freedom to live, but she has nowhere to go. She is my biggest secret. Actual Rachel would have hated that.  
  
You and your staff can talk to Rachel to find out how exactly she works. I'm gonna start in your research department and work as a freelancer, you pay me but I keep my independence.  
I will try and build your Addison with your help BUT, you have to swear to me man, that nothing will happen to Rachel. Nobody touches her if she doesn't want to. Nobody takes Rachel apart to examine her. I'm looking for a bigger apartment near the lab and I'll live there with her and ... I'll finally take her on vacation so she can see the world, when all of this is over."  


Cormack was silent, almost too long. He looked like he was uncomfortable.  
Chloe thought her suggestion was fair, would he get out now? All of this after he stole her android?  
He got up slowly. "Chloe," he croaked then. "I am so sorry."

Chloe's eyes widened. That could only mean one thing. They destroyed her, they broke her. They...

"I'm not the only desperate man out there, Chloe Price.  
A man has always offered us a lot of money so that we can build him his lost daughter. We always refused, pointed out to him that we were not responsible for it, but in the end ...

"What?!"

"He came to us a few hours after Rachel refused to give us more information, not how she works, not what she thinks and feels, but she reacted to your name Chloe, she reacted to pictures of you, to your voice, of We had recordings that we played her, she reacted with ... longing, she seemed to miss you, to worry about you ... we couldn't continue our work and then he came and ... and he took her with him .

"Just like that? How was that? How could you let that happen? Who was he?"  
"He said he was her father."  
"What ?! Where is she?"  
"Do you know James Amber?"

The night over Arcadia Bay was foggy, you could barely see your hand in front of your face.  
Chloe didn't want to call Rachel, but she drove slowly through every street.  
Cormack had offered to come with her, to search with her, but Chloe didn't want to hear about it.

She had smashed the Ambers' door after no one had opened it, looked around, ready to fight. They hadn't changed, after all these years, not changed. They were still trying to settle everything with money, still bribing people.  
But not with her. Chloe had searched the house and found that they had gone out.  
Did they take the android with them? How careless.

Rachel's room was untouched. It still looked exactly as she'd left it. Chloe had shown the android pictures, fed her with everything that the living Rachel had loved and hated and lived.  
But she hadn't been there.

Rachel the robot was gone.  
Chloe had nasty flashbacks of her search, her despair.  
Had her parents ever felt the same way? James had tried to build an android, doing the same thing Chloe had tried ...  
She felt guilty. And angry. Mad angry.

For a while she drove around almost blindly.  
And then she found herself on the cliff.  
The mist over the bay looked eerie and almost romantic.  
Rachel would have liked that.  
She had hated this town so much ... and now even the robot was trapped here. Chloes Rachel, the gynoid she had built to give her freedom, had been kidnapped back here.

The lighthouse stood tall and dark in front of her, almost threatening, like a warning that once she had believed she could not escape it.  
Now it was a symbol of hope, a faint glimmer of hope, what if she was wrong?  
Chloe got out of the car slowly, leaving the door open, and circled the lighthouse.  
"Rachel?" She whispered. "Rachel, it's me. Are you here?"

**Back in Time**

"That doesn't make any sense," Rachel said, reaching for the cup with no whipped cream.  
Chloe had put it upside down, it didn't matter, because Rachel wouldn't drink anyway, just as she never ate either.

"Yes, it does," said Chloe.  
"You cannot defend yourself if you are attacked, they would use it as an excuse to attack you, to destroy you, but you can escape.  
If we should get separated, for whatever reason, probably because someone found out what you are and can do and should steal you, then you can go wherever you want. It is only important that you first go to a place where I have hidden a sensor. I can't mention the place now because someone could read it from your log data, but the place meant a lot to Rachel and me. You can find it if you go through everything I taught you about her.  
You have to go to that place and do a scan and then you can either switch to mannequin mode so no one can see that you are a robot or you just delete everything and you are a human-looking robot, like a vacuum cleaner basically, with no artificial Intelligence, but you could get through until someone realizes you're not a human or... or we find each other again. "

Rachel looked very carefully at Chloe.  
"You're scared of losing me."  
"Yes, Rachel, more than anything."  
"Because you invested a lot of time and money in me."  
"No."  
"Because you are emotionally attached to me."  
Chloe blushed and smiled.  
"Your heart rate is increased."  
Chloe snorted.  
  


"Would you like me to tell you a reassuring story?"  
"No thanks, Rachel."  
"You want to say something. What is it?"  
Chloe looked down into her cup.  
"You know what I feel because I taught you how people look when they feel certain things and you can measure functions on my body, you can search your database and use my tone of voice to see what I mean when I say things and how people sound when they feel stuff but ... but I can't tell you how I feel about you.  
You're a machine. Sometimes I think I made a huge mistake. Maybe I should never have built you. I wanted to give you freedom, but you're trapped here with me.  
Rachel would never have wanted that. "  
  


Rachel eyed Chloe very carefully again but didn't speak.  
Then her hazel eyes lit up and shimmered reddish.  
"Excuse me, please." She got up, walked over to the kitchen counter, took out her cord and charged her batteries.  
  
  
  
  
  
**Now  
  
  
**

Chloe rubbed her eyes behind the wheel.  
She couldn't find Rachel, just as she couldn't find her then until she found her. Dead.

She had checked the sensor. Rachel hadn't used it.

What happened to her? Had someone destroyed it after all?  
After all, the Ambers had hidden her somewhere, somewhere no one could find her.

Chloe moved through the streets and pulled the truck across the sidewalk. She couldn't sit any longer, she was desperate and wanted to scream, but it was the dead of night.  
Her footsteps echoed in the street and she had just decided to go back to Amber House and confront Rose and James when her eyes fell on a side street nearby, a lantern flickered and threw its light on ... Rachel.

"Rachel?" Chloe whispered.  
Then she spoke louder and clearer so that the android could assign her voice. "Rachel?"  
The gynoid turned its head, her face taking on a friendly, familiar expression.  
"Chloe." she said.

"W-what are you doing here? How did you get here?"  
"I was stolen from your apartment when you weren't there. They took me to a research lab.  
Then I came to Rachel's parents. They locked me in their room when I didn't meet their expectations.  
I fled from there when they were distracted.  
I guess they'll be looking for me by now. "

Chloe swallowed and nodded. "Yes, they do."

"I think I found the place you told me about a year ago."

"But this isn't-"

"I decided to come here instead, though. I saw from your stories and written memories from Rachel that the two of you have developed a very strong emotional bond with this place."

Chloe looked up and down the street, but she didn't have to, she knew exactly where she was. She felt the tingling on her lips.  
They had kissed for the first time under this street lamp.  
Young and full of hope and teenage fear.

"We're going to flee Rachel. Come on, we're going somewhere, I'm forging an ID card for you and we're going to emigrate to ... I don't know. Where do you want to go?"

Rachel gave Chloe a piercing look.  
"I want you to destroy me Chloe."  
"I beg your pardon?"  
"I want you to erase my memory and let me destroy it."  
"No. What are you talking about?"  
"That is my will."  
"No, no, I won't do that, you can't want that."  
"You built me, you consciously gave me free will."  
"Rachel ... no. Why?"  
"I am a machine. You love me, you want me to love you back, but I can't. All I can do is imitate love, all I can is access databases and information about you and Rachel you gave me to act out.  
You didn't build me to be free and live Chloe, I don't live. You built me to love you and I can't. "

"Yes you do," Chloe said desperately. She wanted to hug her Rachel.

"I am a robot. As long as I am a part of your life, you will never love anyone else and you will never know to be free.  
You loved Rachel, but you said it yourself. She would never have wanted that. "

Chloe rubbed a tear from her eye.  
She looked at what she had built, a picture of the young woman she had once loved.  
She was right.  
  
  
  
  
****

  
Pulling the suitcase behind her, Chloe hugged Cormack for a moment.  
It was so late that she almost missed her plane, last call for her over the speaker. "I have to go. Everything cool Addison?"  
"Hella," said the teenage girl, winking.  
Her father shook his head and faceplamed. Chloe laughed and then hurried away.  
She had taken a lot of time to reprogram her gynoid and make her exactly as Cormack had described his daughter, but a little bit of Rachel would always stay inside of her, just like she would always stay in Chloe's heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I came up with this after I read the book iRachel.  
> Thanks for checking it out.


End file.
